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Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s FutureProof - your regular dose of tech, sustainability, and “wait, some eejits are still burning fossil fuels… why?” Another week somehow vanished (seriously, how are we halfway through October already?), but I’ve got a lean, mean lineup for you:
Climate investment now officially the smartest business move on Earth
EV sales smashing records
AI casually discovering cancer therapies
And mega-batteries turning sunlight into 24/7 power
As ever, FutureProof exists to remind us that progress is happening, much faster than the doom merchants would have you believe. If that sounds like your kind of rebellion, read on. And share it with anyone who could use a little climate optimism (or a break from LinkedIn humblebrags).
These are this week’s stories:
Climate
Forget Oil — the Real Growth Story Is Green
Economist Nicholas Stern (yes, that Stern Review Stern) is back, and he’s calling climate investment the only real growth opportunity of the 21st century. Fossil-fuelled expansion, he warns, is a self-destruct button dressed as an economic plan. As clean tech races ahead and carbon assets teeter on the edge of obsolescence, the next wave of “stranded assets” could make 2008 look quaint.
Key Highlights:
Renewable and battery costs have plummeted: solar down 80%, offshore wind down 73%, onshore wind down 57% over the last decade.
Stern calls high-carbon growth “self-destructing” - like building wealth by burning your own house for warmth.
Even the UK’s own fiscal watchdog now agrees it’s far cheaper to reach net zero than not to.
Why This Matters: The 21st-century economy won’t be powered by barrels, but by bytes, volts, and human lungs that can actually breathe. Stranded assets aren’t just an accounting term, they’re fossils in waiting.
Kismet: The UK’s net zero sector is already growing three times faster than the wider economy. Capitalism, it seems, has finally twigged that green is the new gold. 👉 Full story here
Carbon Offsets: The Climate Fix That Wasn’t
Joseph Romm (yes, the hydrogen myth-busting Joe Romm) is back with a 30-page academic takedown of the entire carbon offset industry. His verdict? After two decades of broken promises, dodgy baselines, and tree-planting scams, most offsets are about as real as Monopoly money. The vast majority, he says, “greatly overestimate their impact, often by a factor of five to ten.” The fix? Stop pretending we can outsource guilt. Invest instead in actual emissions cuts and permanent carbon removal.
Key Highlights:
A 2024 meta-analysis found fewer than one in six carbon credits represents a real emissions reduction.
Even UN-supervised projects were riddled with overcrediting and perverse incentives, some literally encouraged polluters to pollute more.
Voluntary carbon markets have shrunk from $2.1 billion in 2021 to $723 million in 2023 as buyers realise “net zero” shouldn’t mean “not our problem.”
Why This Matters: Offsets have become the fig leaf of climate policy - a convenient illusion delaying the hard, necessary work of cutting emissions at source.
Kismet: Romm notes that to truly balance fossil emissions, we’d need geological-timescale carbon storage, i.e. thousands of years, not a few decades of trees. In other words, most offsets expire before your Netflix password does. 👉 Full story here
AI News
AI Just Found a New Cancer Pathway - and It Wasn’t Even Looking for It
Google DeepMind’s new Gemma C2S-Scale 27B model has done something extraordinary - it generated and experimentally confirmed a brand-new cancer therapy hypothesis. Working with Yale, the model pinpointed a drug combination that could help “unmask” tumours and make them visible to the immune system, turning so-called “cold” tumours “hot.” It’s the first time a large AI model for cell biology has made a novel, testable biomedical discovery in live cells.
Key Highlights:
Gemma’s 27-billion-parameter model learned to “read” the language of single cells, spotting complex biological patterns like a molecular linguist.
It predicted that silmitasertib would boost immune signalling only in interferon-positive conditions, a context-specific effect smaller models couldn’t see.
Yale lab tests confirmed the finding: combining the two treatments boosted immune visibility by ~50%, potentially transforming tumour immunotherapy.
Why This Matters: We’re watching the start of AI not just analysing data, but creating knowledge, an algorithm generating a working biomedical hypothesis that survives the lab.
Kismet: The same scaling laws that make ChatGPT better at language now apply to biology, meaning the next big drug discovery might come not from a scientist’s hunch, but from a model that’s learned to think in cells instead of sentences. 👉 Full story here
AI Just Outpaced Moore’s Law — Again
Anthropic’s new Claude Haiku 4.5 shows just how blisteringly fast the AI race is moving. Only five months after its big sibling Claude Sonnet 4 debuted as state-of-the-art, Haiku 4.5 now delivers similar coding performance at one-third the cost and twice the speed. It even beats Sonnet 4 in some real-world tasks, while being safer and more energy-efficient. Translation: what was “frontier” AI in May is now running on your Chrome tab in October.
Key Highlights:
Haiku 4.5 matches top-tier coding performance for a fraction of the price, $1/$5 per million tokens on API.
It’s officially Anthropic’s safest model yet, with fewer misaligned responses than even their high-end models.
Supports multi-agent orchestration - Sonnet 4.5 can break down a problem and coordinate multiple Haiku 4.5s to solve it in parallel.
Why This Matters: The pace of AI progress isn’t linear, it’s compounding. Capabilities that were “cutting-edge” before summer are now budget-tier. That kind of acceleration makes planning (and regulation) feel like trying to nail jelly to a jet engine.
Kismet: If Haiku 4.5 were a person, it’d be a prodigy who graduated university in May and came back in October to teach the professors. 👉 Full story here
Electromobility
Two Million EVs in a Month - the Tipping Point Just Tipped
Global EV sales hit a record 2.1 million units in September, up 26% year-on-year, according to Rho Motion. China, as ever, dominated the leaderboard with two-thirds of total sales, while the U.S. sprinted to a record month as buyers rushed to claim their last-chance tax credits. Europe followed suit, with sales up 36% - helped by incentives and a cheaper Tesla Model Y lighting up forecourts like fairy lights in December.
Key Highlights:
China sold 1.3 million EVs in September alone, two-thirds of the global total.
North America surged 66%, fuelled by an “incentive rush” before U.S. credits expired.
Global EV and plug-in hybrid sales crossed 2 million in a single month for the first time in history.
Why This Matters: We’ve hit escape velocity - EVs aren’t a niche anymore, they’re the market’s new normal. The next disruption? Fossil fuel demand curves starting to wobble.
Kismet: That 2.1 million cars sold in one month is roughly equal to the total number of EVs sold globally in all of 2018, a blink in industrial time. The S-curve has officially gone vertical. 👉 Full story here
Spain Lands in the Fast Lane as BYD Eyes Its Third European EV Factory
China’s BYD, the world’s top-selling EV maker, is reportedly lining up Spain as the frontrunner for its third European car plant, after Hungary and Turkey. If confirmed, it’s a huge win for Spain’s EV ambitions and a big flex in the global clean-tech chess match. The country’s combo of low-cost manufacturing, strong clean energy grid, and diplomatic pragmatism (it notably abstained from the EU’s vote on Chinese EV tariffs) may have just paid off, massively.
Key Highlights:
BYD’s European sales are up 280% year-to-date, fuelled by plug-in hybrids and new dealerships across the continent.
Spain’s €5 billion EV and battery plan, partly funded by EU recovery cash, has already lured VW, CATL, and Chery - BYD could be next.
BYD aims to build all EVs for Europe locally within three years, sidestepping EU tariffs and cutting shipping emissions.
Why This Matters: Spain could soon be the beating heart of Europe’s clean car manufacturing boom, and BYD’s move shows that global EV giants are betting on Europe’s green reindustrialisation, not just China’s dominance.
Kismet: If BYD chooses Spain, it’ll mark the first time a Chinese carmaker builds three separate EV plants in Europe, an industrial pivot so swift it makes legacy automakers look like they’re driving with the handbrake on. 👉 Full story here
Incidentally, one of our neighbours has a BYD Atto 3, and they were lucky enough to snag MWH as part of the licence plate!!! 👇
Clean Energy
China’s Clean Energy Juggernaut Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust
In just seven years, China has exported nearly $1 trillion worth of clean energy tech, from batteries and solar panels to EVs and wind turbines, and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Reuters’ analysis of Ember data, Europe remains the top customer (snapping up $370 billion since 2018), but growth is now booming across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East too. Despite tariff spats and political pushback, China’s manufacturing muscle continues to dominate the global energy transition, while Western economies argue about it.
Key Highlights:
$330 billion in batteries exported since 2018 — the single largest clean tech segment.
EV exports up 1,600% since 2019, hitting $52 billion in the first eight months of 2025 alone.
Exports of grid tech and cooling systems are now surging as climate extremes and electrification fuel global demand.
Why This Matters: The clean energy race isn’t about who’s making the boldest pledges, it’s about who’s shipping the hardware. And right now, Beijing’s factories are powering the planet’s green transition, one container ship at a time.
Kismet: China has exported more clean energy tech since 2018 than the entire GDP of Switzerland, proof that the energy transition is already globalised, industrialised, and unmistakably Made in China. 👉 Full story here
IEA Says Renewables Are Breaking Records - Again
The IEA’s Renewables 2025 report just dropped, and it’s pure wattage optimism. Global renewable capacity is expected to jump 510 gigawatts this year, the biggest annual increase ever recorded, with solar power leading the charge, accounting for three-quarters of that growth. China alone will install more solar in 2025 than the entire world did in 2020. The agency now forecasts that renewables will generate one-third of all global electricity by early 2026, permanently dethroning coal as the planet’s main power source.
Key Highlights:
510 GW of new renewable capacity expected in 2025, a 22% leap from last year.
Solar additions in China exceed the combined total of the rest of the world.
Renewables are set to meet 96% of new electricity demand globally this year.
Why This Matters: This isn’t just progress, it’s a structural rewrite of the global energy system. The fossil-fuel era is slipping into the rear-view mirror faster than even optimists predicted.
Kismet: The IEA notes that if current trends continue, the world will add more renewable power between 2025 and 2028 than in the entire first 20 years of this century, proof that exponential change doesn’t crawl; it sprints. 👉 Full story here
Storage
The Battery Boom That’s Rewiring the Planet
From blackout panic to grid backbone, mega batteries are quietly taking over. The FT reports that since California’s 2020 blackouts, the state’s battery capacity has tripled to 13GW, with plans to add another 8.6GW by 2027. I’m hoping something similar happens here in Spain - though the chart above doesn’t fill me with hope on that score!
Globally, storage capacity is exploding, up 67% this year to 617GWh, and projected to grow tenfold by 2035. With prices halving in just two years and containers now packing twice the punch, batteries are transforming from grid backup to grid boss.
Key Highlights:
Lithium-ion costs have fallen 90% since 2010, and new 10MWh containers can power 30,000 homes for an hour.
Over 250 gigascale projects are planned worldwide, from the UK and Chile to Saudi Arabia and China.
California’s batteries now meet a quarter of evening peak demand, slashing gas use by 37% since 2023.
Why This Matters: Batteries are no longer the sidekick of renewables, they’re the enabler of a 24/7 clean energy world. The fossil grid’s days of holding us hostage after sunset are numbered.
Kismet: The world now has more gigawatt-scale battery projects under construction than it had total just three years ago — proof that storage has gone from “nice-to-have” to “civilisation-defining” in record time. 👉 Full story here
Australia’s Supernode Battery Is About to Make History
Australia’s biggest battery just got an upgrade, and it’s about to become the first in the world to cross 1 GW and 5 GWh of capacity. The Supernode project near Brisbane, run by Quinbrook Infrastructure, is adding an eight-hour battery module to its existing 2- and 4-hour fleet, pushing total storage above five gigawatt-hours. For context, a gigawatt is roughly the output of a nuclear reactor, and this site will be able to store five hours worth of the electricity output of a nuclear power plant! The new system, powered by CATL cells, ditches bulky chillers thanks to a slower charge-discharge cycle and ambient cooling, boosting efficiency, density, and lifespan.
Key Highlights:
The expansion adds 250 MW / 2 GWh of 8-hour batteries, bringing the total to > 1 GW / 5 GWh.
Ambient cooling cuts 3% daily parasitic losses and increases usable space for cells.
Solar + storage combo now delivers 16 hours of firmed power per day, beating wind on marginal cost.
Why This Matters: The Supernode shows what the post-coal grid looks like, solar by day, batteries by night, and fossil generators finally running out of excuses.
Kismet: Once completed, the Supernode will store enough energy to power 1.5 million homes for four hours, more than all of Brisbane. 👉 Full story here
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Latest Podcasts
Climate Confident:
The Plastic Revolution Growing in Your Backyard
This week I spoke with Christopher Carrick, founder and CTO of Lignin Industries, whose innovation is turning treesinto the future of plastic. Quite literally. In his kitchen, he discovered a way to transform lignin -— the tough, brown polymer that makes wood rigid, into a thermoplastic that can replace up to 40% of fossil-based plastics without losing strength or recyclability.
His “aha” moment? Moulding lignin into Chewbacca ice cubes. (Yes, really.) From that kitchen experiment came a breakthrough: bioplastics that smell faintly of wood, can mix with recycled polymers, and even improve their recyclability thanks to lignin’s natural antioxidants.
Episode Highlights:
Lignin replaces up to 40% of fossil-based plastic, and can be mixed with recycled polymers for net-zeromaterials.
The resulting plastics are recyclable within existing systems and degrade less over multiple loops.
Cost parity with fossil ABS by next year, and cheaper within a decade as scaling kicks in.
Why This Matters: If we can replace even a fraction of the 400 million tonnes of plastic made each year with renewable, recyclable bioplastic, it’s a massive win for the climate and for circularity.
Kismet: The original prototype was shaped like Chewbacca, a happy accident that might just help the world fight its biggest plastic villain: fossil fuels. 🎧 Listen to the full episode
Sustainable Supply Chain:
Drones, Data & the Death of the Clipboard
In this week’s episode, I sat down with Jackie Wu, CEO and co-founder of Corvus Robotics, whose fully autonomous warehouse drones are taking the dusty, back-breaking world of inventory counting and giving it a Jetsons-era makeover.
Think of a job that involves climbing four-storey racks with a barcode scanner in 40°C heat, now replace that human with a self-flying robot that maps, scans, and updates your inventory in hours instead of months. Jackie’s team builds everything in-house, hardware, AI stack, flight software, creating a warehouse tool that’s part drone, part digital twin, all disruption.
Episode Highlights:
Corvus drones scan vast warehouses autonomously, syncing live with WMS and ERP systems like SAP’s EWM.
One early customer recovered a six-figure lost pallet on day one, instant ROI and a sustainability win.
Electric drones reduce waste, improve inventory accuracy, and cut product loss for food and pharma firms.
Why This Matters: Real-time visibility is the foundation of a resilient, low-waste supply chain, and these drones are turning the world’s warehouses into living, breathing datasets.
Kismet: The oldest written documents in history - Sumerian clay tablets, were inventory lists. 5,000 years later, we’re still at it… only now, the counter has wings.
🎧 Listen to the full episode
Coming Soon to the podcasts
BREAKING: There’s big news coming shortly to the Sustainable Supply Chain podcast - stay tuned!!!
In the coming episodes I will be talking to Jamie Barsimantov, VP Supply Chain Strategy at Sphera, and Johanna Wolfson, Partner at Azolla Ventures.
Don’t forget to follow the podcasts in your podcast app of choice to ensure you don’t miss any episodes.
Featured Chart
If you were thinking of getting a plug-in hybrid, it turns out they’re barely cleaner than their petrol and diesel equivalents in terms of emissions (and are more complicated, so more likely to breakdown!).
If you’re worried about how much water AI uses, wait til you see how much water is used by meat (particularly hamburgers, in this case).
Despite the big outage in Spain in April earlier this year falsely being blamed on renewables, it turns out that typically as more renewables are rolled out, grids tend to have fewer outages, not more.
Misc stuff
Apple Intelligence may not be all that intelligent!
Mindblowing, right?
Finally, this one is an oldie, but goodie!!!
Engage
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Finally, since being impacted by the tech layoffs, I'm currently in the market for a new role. If you know someone who could benefit from my tech savvy, sustainability, and strong social media expertise, I'd be really grateful for a referral.
If you have any comments or suggestions for how I can improve this newsletter, don’t hesitate to let me know. Thanks.
*** Be aware that any typos you find in this newsletter are tests to see who is paying attention! ***
And Finally
Who remembers who Enid Blyton was?
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